SecureData 2TB Secure Drive BT External SSD Review

We have looked at plenty of SSD security solutions in the past, the most recent being the Apricorn Aegis Fortress L3 External SSD, or my personal favorite and constant companion, the Apricorn Aegis Secure Key 3.0 480GB flash drive which had been with me for some three years now.  I prefer hardware security solutions to software, as many do, simply because some business systems won’t allow access to storage using software security.  The beauty of hardware security is that you input your password onto the keypad and the drive becomes an open drive on the connected system.  SecureData has put a different spin on the concept of both hardware and software security and we think it is rather interesting… Bluetooth.

Secure Data has created the Secure Drive BT  which is a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated hardware encrypted SSD that locks and unlocks through an app on your Android or IOS smartphone, and can also be set to unlock by TouchID, FaceID, face and fingerprint recognition.  Surprisingly, set up was quick and easy and opening the drive is simply a quick click on the locked key icon within the app.  Let’s add to that just to give you a taste of what the Secure Drive BT is really capable of.  The Secure Drive BT optional ‘Managed Version’ is remote management capable, can be erased remotely, and also can be set with a geofence perimeter where the drive can only be opened within restricted areas.  This is something I haven’t seen elsewhere.  And the beauty of this is that all data being stored or removed from the Secure Drive BT is encrypted and decrypted in real-time.

The SecureData Secure Drive BT is available in hard drive models up to 5TB and SSD models from 256GB to 8TB.  There is no other manufacturer that has a secure SSD available in this capacity today in the market today. It is constructed of a blue matte colour aluminum exterior with LEDs on the top front, and the interior components are all encased in an epoxy coating to prevent any physical opening of the drive.  It has AES 256-bit XTS hardware encryption and is not IP57 dust and water-resistant. As well, entering the wrong password into the app ten times results in the drive automatically erasing the password, all data and the drives format, making retrieval of any data impossible.  There is also no backdoor to allow recovery should a password be forgotten, although there is a password recovery mode that can be pre-configured.  Check out Secure Drive BT pricing at Amazon.

The SecureData Secure Drive BT SSD is Win, Mac, Linux, Android, IOS and Chrome compatible and is a USB 3.0 device, perhaps limiting performance just a bit, and if we were to make one suggestion for future upgrades, USB Type-C would be it.  The Secure Drive BT comes with a two-year warranty and has limited free versions of DriveSecurity Anti-virus and USBtoCloud Cloud Backup available.  In addition to the other rock solid security features found in this device, there is also a ‘Step-Away feature which locks the SecureDrive when the mobile phone is no longer in proximity, as well as a brute force anti-hacking self-erase mechanism which ensures information is never compromised.

Now let’s take a bit closer look at the components and performance on the next page.